Chemical drift a growing concern for rural residents

State legislatures throughout the country are grappling with chemical drift from farm fields and the conflict between the rights and pressures of farming and the rights and health of rural residents.

Clare Howard

Paul Hahn, owner of Mackinaw Valley Vineyard, has battled chemical drift from nearby farm fields for more than a decade, and this year his vines got slammed by drift from the herbicide 2,4-D.

"My vineyard was burned real bad this spring. I can't tell the extent yet, but it's bad," Hahn said. "All my neighbors know I have grapes, and they all know what 2,4-D (drift) does to grapes, but someone used it."

Cal Snow, a retired high school teacher, has watched chemical drift from a nearby farm field billow over children playing in his subdivision south of Lacon.

Across Illinois Route 26 from Snow's subdivision, Gary Barnes, a retired minister, has filed complaints about chemical drift with the Illinois Department of Agriculture for 14 years.

State legislatures throughout the country are grappling with chemical drift from farm fields and the conflict between the rights and pressures of farming and the rights and health of rural residents.

Maine recently passed legislation that proponents hope will be a model for the rest of the country. The new law calls for the creation of a notification registry for two types of aerial applications to inform neighbors of what, when and how chemicals are being used on agriculture fields.

Barnes said prior notification of chemical spraying would be a great help. He once believed that with adequate documentation, he could call upon existing laws and regulations to protect his property. He's no longer a believer.

Trees and bushes in his yard have been denuded. Some died. He bred Peregrine falcons for 10 years. He quit recently. After one bird died, he sealed and air-conditioned the coops and kept the birds inside. Even in those conditions, all his falcon embryos died hours after an ag chemical was applied on a neighboring field. After that, he gave up on falcon breeding and his $50,000 investment in the operation. Now he has homing pigeons, a much less expensive operation.

His complaints over 14 years are well documented with the Illinois Department of Agriculture. He once received $750 in compensation for the death of a Peregrine falcon caused by farm chemical spray.

"I'm not interested in suing. We just want to be left alone," Barnes said.

Need for regulation

James Bruce McMath, one of the nation's leading attorneys specializing in pesticide drift, said the ultimate solution lies with state legislatures, not with the courts.

"I hate to say that, because I'm a great believer in the law," he said, referring to redress through the courts. In the case of chemical drift, however, he said the burden of proof is "a terribly stacked deck against the claimant."

McMath, of Little Rock, Ark., said existing federal regulations were not aggressively enforced under the Bush administration.

"The need is for effective regulation. Under the Bush administration, regulation was blunted. Laws didn't change, but laws were not applied," he said. "The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) needs to be more aggressive in enforcing regulatory laws."

McMath called state regulations patchy and said "states need to be aggressive in investigation and in not dodging their job."

There will always be some chemical drift, but more with aerial applications than with ground application, he said, noting "with the increasing intensification of agriculture, regulations must make sure not to benefit one person at the expense of another."

He said chemical drift has become a political issue in part because agriculture and farm chemicals are a significant part of the economy.

In Illinois, state Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson, drafted a resolution developed with input from the Illinois Fertilizer & Chemical Association.

Moffitt said his concern was heightened by an incident involving two children who were sprayed with a chemical last summer by an aerial applicator treating a field in Dahinda with the fungicide Quilt. The children's father, Rick Collins, was unable to reach anyone because state offices had closed for the day. Collins said neither law enforcement nor a poison control hotline helped him.

Collins ultimately called Moffitt's home at night, hours after the incident and after multiple fruitless phone calls. The legislator was in Chicago, but his wife made a number of calls and finally was able to learn what company was responsible for the spraying and what chemical was involved.

Moffitt said the state needs better communication channels to enable the public to learn on a 24-7 basis what chemicals might be involved in a potential misapplication.

"I'm a farmer. I grew up on a farm. Farmers need to be able to use these products, but we need to ensure the safety of the general public," Moffitt said.

Jean Payne, president of the Illinois Fertilizer & Chemical Association, said the chemical involved in the Dahinda incident was a fungicide and had a "low toxicity compared with insecticides."

In sharp disagreement is Karl Tupper, a scientist with Pesticide Action Network North America, who said one-time exposure to one of the components of this fungicide could cause developmental or reproductive damage.

Moffitt, who has experience with emergency response systems, said he's concerned with the amount of time it took the Collins family to get the information they needed.

"Timing can be critical. In order to treat exposure, medical staff needs to know what the product is," he said.

Moffitt said he started his efforts with a House resolution and will get more input and then pursue joint House-Senate legislation. He has spoken with state Sen. David Koehler, D-Peoria, about co-sponsoring in the Senate.

"We want this to be a safe and workable solution. It may require some revision," Moffitt said.

Complaints with the state

On his rural Lacon property, Barnes said he already has suffered from chemical drift this year, and the peak time for farm chemical application is just getting under way. Barnes said weeks pass between his formal complaints with the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the arrival of an inspector from the department.

Last month, an inspector meeting with him about a recent complaint asked if it would be helpful to receive prior notification when farm chemicals will be used on surrounding fields. Barnes said it would be enormously helpful.

Advance notification is not required under the law in Illinois, and right now would have to be arranged between the landowner and the chemical applicator or farmer, said Warren Goetsch, bureau chief of environmental programs with the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

"We have maybe half a dozen of these situations around the state of recurring complaints, and we try to work with them," Goetsch said.

He said mandated, statewide prenotification might be helpful but would be extremely difficult with 34,000 licensed chemical applicators. Even with that many licensed applicators, the state receives only 100 to 150 complaints each year, he said.

"We try to get there (to investigate a complaint) as fast as possible, but it could take two, three or four weeks. Normally it's faster, but we have limited staff," Goetsch said, noting that with the current state budget crisis, he doesn't expect to be able to increase beyond the 17 investigators currently responding to complaints.

Koehler, who is on the Senate agriculture committee, said he would like to hold public hearings on chemical drift to learn the scope of the problem.

"Hearings would bring to the forefront how big this problem is," he said. "Most legislators are not overwhelmed with calls on this, and it's hard to make legislative issues if you don't hear how big the problem is and what potential solutions are. I sense by some conversations that small farmers are intimidated and fearful of aerial sprayers on larger farms."

Barnes said most people get discouraged from filing complaints because it can be weeks before an inspector shows up, and by then, no evidence remains and the complaint is considered unfounded.

"In 14 years, they've never come out the same day. They bog you down to the point you won't keep at it," he said. "It's not just wind that causes drift. Heat from the ground can make the chemical rise into the air. I've seen a big white column of chemical 40 feet high."

Payne, with the Illinois Fertilizer & Chemical Association, said her organization is following up on Moffitt's resolution and is working with the Illinois Department of Agriculture to establish a link on the department's Web site and a phone number for 24-7 response.

A statewide registry

Payne said Maine's new mandated registry would be too burdensome for Illinois, which has 27 million acres in agricultural production.

Maine Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, who sponsored the bill establishing a registry, said the demographic differences between Illinois and Maine should not create problems for establishing a registry in Illinois.

"The smell of manure in the morning goes along with living near a farm. I have no tolerance for people who complain about the odors, but this is a public health issue that comes with immense societal and personal cost," he said.

"It's fairly well known at this point that many pesticides are linked with cancer and improper brain development in young children and a whole host of health and developmental issues. It seems the least we can do in the age of communications technology is to communicate with people before we spray."

Heather Spalding, associate director with the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association, said the legislation grew out of years of research, meetings and coalition building and is expected to serve as a national model to provide guidance for other states.

"It is absolutely necessary. The system of disseminating information was broken. People have a right to be knowledgeable and aware of what is being used around them," Spalding said.

The legislation was signed by the governor of Maine last month and will go into effect by the start of next year's growing season. Both chemical and organic farm organizations worked on formulating the legislation, and both groups endorsed it.

The registry covers aerial application of chemicals but could be expanded to ground application at some point in the future, Spalding said.

Before the start of the growing season, farmers are required to inform all contiguous land owners what chemicals will be used and by what method. People within a quarter-mile of the farm operation can request to be part of the registry.

Once farm work starts, everyone on the registry must be notified at least one but not more than seven days in advance of a chemical application. If plans change and the chemical application is postponed, another notification goes out. Notification can be by a number of methods from simple phone calls to robo calls or e-mails.

Vaporized chemical drift

Spalding said the registry is just part of a solution. Her agency is looking at the volatilization of farm chemicals, a problem affecting Mackinaw Valley Vineyard.

"You can do everything right with 2,4-D, but if conditions change, you can have problems," Hahn said, noting that high humidity even the day after an application can cause the chemical to evaporate into the air and drift a mile or more.

"There are a lot of other less volatile chemicals out there. It boils down to education and being a good neighbor," he said.

"I wish 2,4-D was outlawed, but it would help to get advance notification of any chemical spraying near you. This is a big issue. All vineyards are struggling. All vineyards are in agricultural areas, and the aerial spraying has already started around us."

Cal Snow, who watched chemical drift from a nearby field blow through his subdivision, said as more farmers switch to no-till or minimum-till, more spraying of "burn-down" chemicals are being applied. Typically, that's a combination of chemicals that includes 2,4-D.

"Agent Orange had a concentrated form of 2,4-D. I'm older and retired, but it can be dangerous to children especially," he said. "In agricultural areas, people just don't complain. Everyone has friends or family in farming. People just grin and bear it, but something needs to be done."

Questioned about whether advanced notification could have prevented his children from being sprayed with a fungicide, Rick Collins said, "Yes. That's exactly what we're asking for."

Clare Howard can be reached at (309) 686-3250 or choward@pjstar.com.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.